RIP LaserDiscPioneer is set to officially end the production of LaserDisc players at the end of March, with 3,000 more LaserDisc units still in production."In 1980, Pioneer introduced...

Read the full article here: [http://www.cdfreaks.com/news/15421-Pioneer-finally-pulls-plug-on-LaserDisc.html](http://www.cdfreaks.com/news/15421-Pioneer-finally-pulls-plug-on-LaserDisc.html)
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Actually, DVD resolution is irrelevant in this conversation because Laserdisc video is uncompressed. Hence, the larger disc size. So as long as the source was a clean master, DVD video files are always going to be lossy.

Wow, I’m in a state of shock. I had no idea they were still making players. In a related note, I was in a store on Yonge Street (Toronto) last week and the guy was selling new HD DVDs for $5 each. God, how I wish Toshiba had the balls to tough it out. I think they would have made a comeback. Excuse me, I have to go. I have something in my eye. Sniff…

Actually, LaserDisc was superior in quality to VHS. Some players did have S-Video outs as well, and a properly made disc didn’t degrade like SVHS. (It wasn’t a better picture than ED-Beta, but the best discs were equal in quality).

Also, Pioneer introduced their first industrial players no later than 1979.

It wasn’t just a format for letterbox (there are a LOT of P&S discs out there), it was a format for videophiles. There’s a lot more players and discs out there than most people think, but anyone I knew with a home theatre setup (or even a big screen TV) in the 80’s up to the late 90’s had a LaserDisc player.

Take a look at MAME. The goal there is complete accuracy. In implementing LaserDisc games, they judged MPEG-2 (which DVD uses) to be insufficient for preserving the quality of the discs used in the games.

I bought into laserdisc when it first came out because VHS and SVHs sucked when played side by side. but all you heard from folks in the stores was " you can’t record on it" Well you couldn’t when DvDs first came out BUT everyone bought into that one! And now DvDs have gone back to AC-3 wonder why ? better sound. I still play my laserdisc’s and am looking at the new player.